Apple admits the Mac Pro was a mess
theverge.com
Apple admits the Mac Pro was a mess
1–10 of 53 posts
Re: Apple admits the Mac Pro was a mess
#2What an overly dramatic headline for an "admission" of "we designed ourselves into a thermal corner".
It's a slick piece of design and engineering.
It has limitations and limited commercial appeal.
Was thinking about a design for the new one. Blend Mac Mini and the pro together as a stackable design.
Stack two top end Minis, and a dual chip graphics box to get a Pro spec desktop.
Others have tried it to limited success. Apple could make it work.
Re: Apple admits the Mac Pro was a mess
#3The linked Daring Fireball article[1] is a lot more interesting and informative
Re: Apple admits the Mac Pro was a mess
#4Apple's entire desktop environment and lineup is a mess. I'm using windows 10 and couldn't be happier.
I feel like I've played ping-pong over the years, bouncing back and forth between windows and apple. XP was okay, windows 7 was terrible. MacOS was amazing at the time, but whatever MacOS I have right now keeps crashing. Now I'm back to microsoft with windows 10
Re: Apple admits the Mac Pro was a mess
#5Three related but not dependent things keep getting conflated:
1. The trash can design was not able to accommodate much heat variance and so was not updatable.
2. The trash can Mac Pro didn't suit some pro needs because of lack of graphics card and internal storage upgradability.
3. Dual graphics cards with an emphasis on OpenCL was the wrong direction to go in.
Re: Apple admits the Mac Pro was a mess
#6Second article and I still don't understand why they can't at least do a spec bump every year. If not possible due to suppliers a price drop should at least grab some market share. With the resources Apple has, anything else is simple negligence.
Re: Apple admits the Mac Pro was a mess
#7I'm not entirely sure why Apple doesn't just use ITX or mATX motherboard layouts for its pro line, and bring back a "Mac" regular line.
Yes, potentially someone could by an "Apple" genuine repair motherboard and DIY their own, but that would make a lot of people happier.... then also make best of breed cases, that can only be had with a full Mac or Mac Pro. Yeah, it would potentially cut into their margins on mac hardware for pros.. but they aren't making much money there... the best bet is to keep the pros making content for their mobile devices happy.
Edit: Also, even if they charged a $300 "core" fee that's refunded when you turn in your old motherboard (assuming boards are sold for replacement), that would cover the "OS License" costs for those that are doing it on their own. Apple still makes money, but keeps the third parties to a minimum.
Re: Apple admits the Mac Pro was a mess
#8Second article and I still don't understand why they can't at least do a spec bump every year. If not possible due to suppliers a price drop should at least grab some market share. With the resources Apple has, anything else is simple negligence.
Engineers, and especially the hardware kind, are a limited resource. Not that Apple couldn't spend even more than they currently are on growth, but they're reaching some limits, and until later this year office space is/will be one of them.
This is combined with the fact that the Mac Pro sells in the "low single digit" percentage range of Mac sales means that it's hard to justify an outsized expense. When factoring in R&D costs, my guess is the Mac Pro has much lower margins than other Macs.
Re: Apple admits the Mac Pro was a mess
#9It's just that it's not worth $4,000 or even $3,000.
The trashcan is cool, despite looking like a trashcan, but way too expensive for what you get.
Something at that price needs to last, and permit upgrades.
For what you get, and what you can do with it, it's not worth more than $1,000.
Many Apple fans buy for status though, and Apple knows this, hence the watch. So, simply having the price tag as an ornament works for some people.
Re: Apple admits the Mac Pro was a mess
#10I'm not entirely sure why Apple doesn't just use ITX or mATX motherboard layouts for its pro line, and bring back a "Mac" regular line. Yes, potentially someone could by an "Apple" genuine repair motherboard and DIY their own, but that would make a lot of people happier.... then also make best of breed cases, that can only be had with a full Mac or Mac Pro. Yeah, it would potentially cut into their margins on mac har…
Bring back the cheese grater!